Ducks recall extravagant weekend

SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday, the Oregon football program will reap some of the final spoils from perhaps the most notorious recruiting weekend in Pac-10 history.

It was nearly five years ago that the Ducks broke the bank to bring 25 recruits to Eugene for official visits. The orgy of private jets and lobster feasts the weekend of Jan. 9-11, 2004, cost the program nearly $150,000. Details of the extravagance, along with scandals at Colorado and Miami, contributed to tighter regulations by the NCAA on such visits imposed later the same year.

The weekend also yielded 13 players who ultimately signed with Oregon, five of whom will be on hand for Tuesday’s Holiday Bowl appearance against Oklahoma State. The quintet includes three starters on defense — rover Patrick Chung, linebacker Jerome Boyd and tackle Ra’Shon Harris — plus reserve offensive tackle Jake Hucko and special teams standout Willie Glasper.

Only Glasper, who delayed his enrollment for a year out of high school and then redshirted, has a year of eligibility left with the Ducks.

At Oregon’s practice Saturday, the players recalled the chauffeured cars that picked them up and took them to the airport for the visit, the private jets that shuttled them to Eugene and the extravagant meals they ate over the course of the weekend.

Scout.com has a list of 24 players who visited that weekend. I reported the number as 25 that year, and that number was reported elsewhere, so that’s what I stuck with for this story. Not sure why there’s a discrepancy in the total.

And don’t get the wrong idea: Recruits still get to eat at the Electric Station, and they get chauffeured around Eugene in nice SUVs. The luxuries of the trips have just been knocked down a notch from outrageously extravagant to exceedingly hospitable.